Daily Posts. Colorful Ideas & Inspirations.

Our team of writers brings you daily trend coverage, new products, inspiration, information and fun ideas. With an archive of more than 2,022 articles, you're sure to find something you love. Or if you have a great idea, let us know!

Custom slip covers are all the rage spanning over Pinterest and Etsy these days. The options are endless to disguise your boring old throw pillows in to squishy pieces of art. Methods are not limited to, but include photo transfers, screen printing, hand stitching and simply using sharpies. Aside from using patterns or graphic prints to add artistic whimsy to your couch or bedspread, opt for lettering in the form of quotes or poetry as a great way to punch up any social atmosphere in your home.

To celebrate National Poetry Month this April, I hope you'll enjoy this brilliant collection of the many slip cover types ranging from poetic classics quoted from the masters to downright amusing lines full of witty emphasis, down to abstract typographic meanderings.

I truly love this trend of adding quotes, poems or words on to your average everyday throw pillows. Using slip-covers, it is an easy thing to switch up for seasonal messages or witty notes when you host.

Community Highlight

There are a number of fun, member-managed wordplay games here on COLOURlovers. One specific group sets up a challenge with palettes combined with HAIKU, we did a feature on it in 2011 here. Check it out!

The kitchen is one of the most active and important rooms within your house—one that gets quite a bit of attention when it comes to home makeovers. You’re in and out of the kitchen constantly. Between preparing meals each day or just grabbing a quick snack, it seems like you end up in the kitchen more than any other room. With this much foot traffic, it needs to be a room that looks decent and represents your home properly.

Lighting can play a big role in helping this come to fruition. Lighting also plays a big role in how your color scheme will set the mood for the room. Kitchens are meant to be inviting rooms—they entice the appetite and help you to relax and unwind from your day.

Let’s illustrate how light can play a role in making kitchens stand out.

Thanks for another great contest everyone! We're excited to announce the talented winners and show off their winning designs. First, let's take a moment to thank the great folks at Drift Studio that helped put this contest together.

Drift Studio is an incubator for design and product ideas. Their mission is to create elegant and thoughtful products that marry form and function while offering something more – the ability to personalize. Attention to detail, quality materials and craftsmanship form the foundation of furniture you can be proud of.

Howdy COLOURlovers! It's been so great to watch all of your amazing tabletop designs come in over the past week -- inspiring, to say the least. As with all good things, the entry period must come to an end so that we can continue with voting and get to those awesome prizes from the folks at Drift Studio.

Drift Studio is an incubator for design and product ideas. Their mission is to create elegant and thoughtful products that marry form and function while offering something more – the ability to personalize. Attention to detail, quality materials and craftsmanship form the foundation of furniture you can be proud of.

One of their unique product offerings is the ability to upload your own designs to their website and create a table featuring your very own artwork. Talk about a great conversation starter when you have house guests!

Howdy COLOURlovers! It's been a little while since our last contest, but we have a great excuse -- we've been working with the folks at Drift Studio to cook up something special we think you're going to enjoy. :)

Drift Studio is an incubator for design and product ideas. Their mission is to create elegant and thoughtful products that marry form and function while offering something more – the ability to personalize. Attention to detail, quality materials and craftsmanship form the foundation of furniture you can be proud of.

For this contest, Drift Studio is excited to engage the COLOURlover's community to help design tops for its new line of coffee tables, Riff Tables. A coffee table can be one of the most central focal points of a room's decor. Use your creative juices to create a conversation piece that will look great and display your unique personality!

This guest post is written by Alex Jackson. Alex, who is a keen interior design follower, wrote this blog on behalf of Bathshop321 and frequently offers advice on interior trends, household improvements and repairs.

Are you wondering which colour will be modelled by bathrooms this year? Whether you’re looking to update a main bathroom, powder room, or master bathroom, you’ve probably been pondering on which colours are trending this year. Easier said than done, right? Well in this post we’ll be seeing creative ways to replace tiles with textures, graphics, and colours -- ranging from dark and dramatic to ultra bright and vibrant. While large renovation makeovers require massive amounts of money and time, a quick lick of paint can brighten and update a bathroom in minutes. Here’s the low-down on the interior design and colour trends for 2012 and beyond.

This guest post is written by Annie Josey. Annie is a blogger for Pegasus Lighting, a specialty lighting retailer committed to helping everyone have a positive learning experience in lighting. Annie is also a fellow color enthusiast, and has made it her goal to use lighting to brighten up the lives (and living spaces) of everyone she meets.

Color-loving homeowners can have some of the most attractive abodes around. Their houses have vibrant front doors and their yards gush with lively flowerbeds. Perhaps they have colorful bird feeders hung from porches or trees, or bold mosaic tiles around swimming pools and along walkways. They outfit their decks with bright chairs and whimsical umbrellas to shade them from the sun, but what happens when the sun goes down, and all that lovely color falls into shadow?

If you’re one of these homeowners, losing out on all your favorite shades the minute the sun sinks down might seem tragic. But, with the right outdoor lights, you can keep your favorite colors looking vibrant AND compliment your décor with even more color.

Today's guest blog is written by Jay Harris. Jay is a Home Depot sales associate and a regular contributor to Home Depot’s blog, where he provides advice on topics such as standard light bulbs and LED light bulbs, as well as other home-lighting themes.

Picking out a room’s colors can be quite an ordeal. Most of the time, you’re struggling against a common opponent—lighting. However, I’ve found that most people only concern themselves with being aware of the lighting in the paint store, and how that changes the color they see in front of them.

When you bring your color home, there is a pretty good chance it can vary from room to room as well, all due to different color temperatures in your bulbs. Now…why would they do such a thing? Aren’t all the light bulbs in my house supposed to be the same color?

With newer lighting technology come new advancements in color and a wider array of choices. CFL and LED bulbs are available in at least three different values: Soft White, Bright White, and Daylight. Each provides you with the light that you need, but offers it at varying “temperatures.”

Today's guest post is from Susi, a writer for Arcadian Lighting. Founded in 2002, Arcadian Lighting started selling decorative homelighting fixturesand lamps online, and has become one of the top Internet retailers for home lighting products. Visit their website and cool blog for more information.

No matter the season, classic coastal inspired interiors can work year round. Gorgeous seaglass, the beachcomber's treasure, is a fantastic palette for a coastal interior. Blues, greens, whites and browns recall warm days spent at the beach.

The most common colors of seaglass are white, green, and brown, but it is blue seaglass that most of us think of when we imagine seaglass. This living room has a lively mix of seaglass colors.

Green seaglass comes in a range of hues from deep bottle green to pale citrus green. Bottle green walls and curtains make the bright blue accents pop in this dining room.

The most common seaglass is white in color. It begins its life as clear glass and the color comes from the pummeling of sand over time. Matte white with sparkling blue glass accents give this dining room the look of seaglass.

Warm woods look perfect next to seaglass colors and recall the beaches where seaglass is discovered. The warmer tones of the wood are a nice complement to the cooler blue and green tones. Even one of the lovely vintage light fixtures is touched by a seaglass blue.

Seaglass blues and greens give this bedroom beachside charm. The onion pattern of the headboard also reminds us of the organic shape of seaglass.

Pale blue painted furniture with an aged finish is inspired by coveted blue seaglass. Warm toned accents along with deep greens turn this entry into a lovely seaglass inspired space.

Pale buttery cream is a lovely neutral to pair with seaglass colors. Blue and greens stand out against the yellow undertones. Crisp white is the perfect accent color.

Today we are interviewing a budding interior designer with an eye for style and a love for interiors. Make sure to check out her interior design blog and portfolio at HOP Interiors. Ok, let's get started.

What past experiences do you think have contributed the most to where you are now?

My passion for interior design has been an immense contributing factor. When you have the passion you are more likely to take the bold risks needed to succeed. Through my passion I am continuously seeking to develop my knowledge of interior design, taking risks with colour and exploring its effects.

What colors do you think we will see a lot of in 2012?

I think that bold strong colours will push through this year such as cobalt blues, bright yellows and fiery oranges and tangerine. In a contrast to that, pastels will start popping up, lots of sugary tones of pinks, greys and blues, will be coming through this year.

There seems to be a lot of the iconic zig-zag Missoni style print which has segued into the interiors stratosphere. Simple prints with both bold and subtle colours will shine through too.

Which colors, patterns & trends are you personally most excited about?

Cobalt and Navy blues are my favourite colours but I always enjoy designing with colours I’m not used to – taking me out of my comfort zone.

When you are feeling stumped, where do you turn for inspiration?

When I’m stumped I tend to take a break from it. I go through loads of magazines, tearing out anything that fits into my idea and then build upon that.

What is your favorite website or app right now?

At the moment I’m addicted to the Pintest app. I also adore decor8 as Holly is immensely inspirational. I use housetohome.com for inspiration for images for a particular space, be it the living room or the bedroom.

When decorating your home, what are the top three colors you turn to for the space?

What is your favorite paint color?

When decorating a space in your home it’s vital that you assess the space for its size and the amount of light it receives. The more light it receives, the cooler the shades, the less light it receives the much warmer the colour may be used (interior design 101). The colours I tend to use most are Night Jewels, Velvet Truffle and Cocoa Blush – colours from the DULUX paint range. However my fabric choices for my last interior project did encompasses rich reds and lush silver tones.

What's the best home design-related advice you've ever received?

If in doubt, always go back to the brief. The brief is the central core to any interiors project. When designing a space in your own home try writing a brief, detailed statement of what you want and don’t want to include in the project. This will be your blueprint to refer back to. There may be times when your eyes go into interior overload with so much choice out there, but if the products and colours you choose do not relate to the brief or the ethos of the scheme then it’s a no-no.

For someone that is just beginning down the rode to create a better home, what resources or advice would you give to them?

One of my mantras is that ‘a room must not only look great, but feel right’. The room must be right for you, it must be comfortable and feel just right for you. There are so many fads and trends but instead of going with the flow I would advise going for that is right for you and your home. When embarking on a better home or a redesign I would advice taking it one step at a time. It’s easy to get carried away and so my advice would be to slow down and take it room by room. If you are unable to do a complete redesign you can always add a few little changes to make a room appear brand new. For example, you can add a new splash of colour to your room or a change of colour to your fabrics and textiles. My blog will give you a lot of handy tips on making changes to certain rooms in the home.